There is a disturbing account in Gainesville, Florida where an officer released a police dog on a ten-year-old boy who was subsequently bitten. It turns out that a burglary call was made by a woman with mental issues and that the boy was merely riding his bike in the area.
Capt. Ed Book said that the incident would be investigated but that he was told the boy was trying to flee. Obviously, since there was no burglary, the boy was not fleeing the crime scene and there is no allegation that he had anything illegal on him. Since when is it appropriate to release a police dog because a child does not yield to commands?
This is reminiscent of recent taser cases, including the tasering of a child acting up in school or refused to take a bath or who ran from her mother.
For the story, click here.
Kudos: Reddit.
“Since when is it appropriate to release a police dog because a child does not yield to commands?”
Since Darryl Gates started the trend of militarizing the police and the defense industry took notice of how much money they could make with “domestic pacification”. This guy shouldn’t have a gun, much less a trained dog. This is not the action of a “peace officer” sworn “to serve and protect”. This is the action of a jackbooted thug.
FTA: “We think he probably got off his bicycle and ran, but we don’t know if he was running from police or was he running because he was scared.”
Shorter: “This is our story and we’re sticking to it, unless there’s a video which contradicts our ass-covering.”
WTF is as nice of a thing as I can say.
Cops: our newest criminal class.
I was attending a city fair in my community here and the cops came with their dogs to put on a demonstration with the dogs.
One dog refused to obey commands. I couldn’t believe my eyes. And that was when I had respect for cops.
Buddha is right.
” …Capt. Ed Book said that the incident would be investigated but that he was told the boy was trying to flee. …”
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There’s another officer who should be gone. First a crazy lady tells them of a burglary, then a crazy cop tells them the kid was trying to flee … they need to scrap the whole force and start over.
slight off toic: Jonathan Ayers killing update:
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/jun/17/stephen-county-deputy-charged-felony-ayers-case/
tOOTIE:
“bUDDHA IS RIGHT”
is hell frozen over?
If Buddha starts agreeing with you, I am going to start preparing for the rapture.
Byron,
No rapture prep required. I do, however, have some lovely fire-proof hand baskets. Very reasonably priced.
This is why I teach my kids to not run when they see a cop no matter what is going on, don’t speak unless spoken to.. Don’t ever approach them unless you are in real danger, and don’t ever trust anyone even a cop.. We have some crazy police in my town.. I haven’t trusted cops since I was a boy and I have never been arrested ever.. I’m 40 and white if they can’t be trusted by people like me they have a problem..
someone else must be posting under that name.
I agree with Buddha and AY. WTF is the first comment that came to my mind. Who in their right mind would order a dog to attack a child. Even if the child had stolen something, is it proper police procedure to use deadly force on an unarmed minor? You almost don’t have to read the entire story to guess that this poor child was African American! Would the policeman have released the dog after a white boy running down the street. It turns out that he had good reason to fear the policeman.
I keep saying this whenever I get the chance.
Firstly, not everybody hears somebody who might happen to be yelling, they may be too far away, there may be too much background noise, they may have their attention elsewhere.
They might not understand a yelled command even if they do hear it.
Nor do innocent people assume that a cop is yelling at them or ordering them around, since they know there is not reason to be yelled at, so they ignore the cop.
In other words the cluster of possible things that can follow a police order, given to an innocient person, are going to be dramtically different than those of a guilty person.
It is the cop’s job to discern the difference, since the innocient person doesn’t know what the hell is going on.
By the way, just how much stolen property can a kid on a bicycle carry and flee at the same time?
Tase, punch or shoot first…
plenty of time to ask questions later, back in Gitmo or Teheran, for as long as necessary, by any means necessary…
Guilty or not.
From reading the article, it seems that Gainesville PD has had other “K-9″ incidents before. A 9 year old boy on a bike wouldn’t seem to most normal people to be a fleeing felon. I wonder what the mentally disturbed person claimed was stolen.
I live in an integrated neighborhood & I taught my kids that policemen are not always your friend. Don’t run, don’t argue, say yes sir (or ma’am) and no sir. My wife was stunned that I would do that but when they hung around with African-American or Hispanic kids they heard horror stories. Luckily they never have had to find out but my wife now understands.
It seems its getting worse & tasers & dogs, far from reducing problems seem to be adding to them.
His actions appear perfectly normal for a policeman who is out of range to use his taser. Lucky for the child he had a dog with him or he would have been forced to run him down with his cruiser.